EMILY
We were going to the gala.
Somehow, I still don’t know how, I convinced Nicholas. Maybe it wasn’t even convincing. Maybe he just knew I wasn’t going to back down this time and decided it was safer to take me than to leave me behind.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared out of my mind. I was. Terrified, actually. But beneath all that fear was something else. A pull. This wasn’t just about the party, or danger, or diamonds.
This was about him.
Nicholas thought I didn’t see him clearly, that I didn’t understand what kind of man he was. Brutal. Strategic. A man who didn’t flinch at blood or bodies. A man carved out of war. He thought if I saw the full weight of that darkness, I’d run.
He was wrong.
I wanted to see it. Not because I was morbid or reckless, but because that sh
